From the editor-in-chief

Digital natives, the millennials who grew up in the noughties are a different breed, writes India Today Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie.

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Aroon Purie

December 15, 2017

ISSUE DATE: December 25, 2017

UPDATED: December 15, 2017 18:22 IST

It is often said that youth is wasted on the young. No longer, it seems. Although each generation thinks it is smarter than the one before, the millennials who grew up in the noughties are a different breed. It has been the best of times for them. Digital natives, the Internet has been their classroom as much as it has been their playground. It has made them independent as much as it has connected them. It has rendered redundant the inequalities of geography and history. And it has given them access to ideas as much as it has given them the means to implement them.

It has created a can-do generation of youngsters who grew up believing in themselves. The simple belief that if you can dream it, you can do it. This generation knows there is more to life than what they've seen with their parents. It's a generation not enamoured of a secure corporate or government job or merely making money. They are looking for meaning in their lives and are willing to follow their dreams on their own steam. They want to make a difference. That's why they are the DIY (Do it Yourself) generation. They have seen global icons like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg give away as much wealth as they have made. They have seen the establishment being challenged in ways no one could have imagined, from the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America, to the European Union. With their smartphones, they have the world in their palms, with entertainment on tap, instant news and platforms to voice their opinions or even start a movement. It has made them more aware of what they want out of their lives and their worlds. The 42nd anniversary special issue pays tribute to just 42 of them in the fields of science, arts, business and society. There are millions more like them.

They are ambitious as much as they are at ease in their skins. So like Mallika Arya, 24, they can get crowdfunding to go to Antarctica to raise awareness of climate change. Or like Kuheli Basak, 17, they can invest money received from a government scheme to set up a shop with a photocopying machine and mobile recharging facilities in the remote village of Fulia in Nadia district, West Bengal. Or like Vedant Kapoor, 16, and Arpit Narang, 13, they can create a soda can-sized satellite to measure humidity, temperature and atmospheric pressure.

They are the Elon Musk generation, dismantlers of markets, machines and ideas, tuned in to global needs. This DIY generation is showing the world a new way to live. They are tech wizards, change-makers; they combat the conventional and make radical the new normal; they are risk-takers and social media jedis. And they are our heroes in the 42nd anniversary issue.

The issue also takes a brief look at youth revolutions and what some have achieved, from fighting against corruption in the Navnirman agitation of 1974 to demanding a change in rape laws after the Nirbhaya horror. And rounding it up, we have conversations between two generations of iconic politicians, sportstars and actors which bring back the joys of civilised discourse. Find out the actor who inspires Naseeruddin Shah and Irrfan Khan; read Kamal Nath telling Jyotiraditya Scindia what persuaded him to stay in politics after the Emergency; check out the impact Sourav Ganguly had on a young Ashwin Ravichandran; and see the one thing Amitabh Bachchan never fails to remember about Ranbir Kapoor.

These are unforgettable conversations. Hopefully, this anniversary issue will be unforgettable for you too.

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